The Search
by Traci
Summary: A serial killer is in the DC area. Monica calls John for help then disappears. Will Mulder, Scully and Doggett be able to find her?


Disclaimer:  Not mine. Sad really.  I don't ask for much out of life so is asking for ownership of these characters *really* asking too much???  Is it???  

Category: Case, DR UST,  M/S Established.

Rating:  R for one or two minor gruesome scenes - otherwise PGish.

Spoilers:  None.  This really has no specified season... it is John/Monica based but includes everyone.

Author:  Traci - traci_ann@yahoo.com

Archiving:  Please, feel free - just drop me an email to let me know where and keep my info with it.

Summary:  Monica calls from a bar and asks a small favor of John but what will it cost them?

Author's Notes:  Okay, this can be blamed on my overactive imagination and the fact that at the moment I am on a 7 hour ferry ride to Newfoundland!  (And yes, there is also the return trip).  Hey, might get more than one story done!

The Search 

John Doggett yawned as he picked up the phone.  "'llo?"

"John?"

He looked at the clock.  "Monica?  Do you know what time it is?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

"What?"  Slowly his vision was beginning to clear.

"I was wondering if you could pick me up at McCafferty's bar."

John grinned.  "Are you drunk?" he teased.

Monica Reyes laughed.  "No, John.  It's not your lucky night.  I went out with some of the girls after work and they've all left and there's this guy who hasn't been able to take no for an answer and... well... I know I can take care of myself but something about this guy..."

"I'll be right there," he told her, already out of bed.

***************

Within fifteen minutes, John was walking into the bar and immediately spotted Monica sitting at the bar as some scraggly looking guy was talking to her.

"Hi, honey, sorry I'm late," John said, placing a kiss on Monica's cheek.

She smiled.  "That's okay."  Faking a yawn, she said, "I'm ready to go home."

"Excuse me," said the guy.  "But I was talking to her.  You snooze, you lose buddy."

Monica tensed.  She had not wanted a fight.

John got in the man's face.  "I'd say she was already taken before she walked in to this bar tonight.  Leave her alone.  She's my girlfriend."

Something in the way he said that made Monica's heart beat a little faster and not out of fear.

Turning to Monica, John took her hand and led her out of the bar.

"Thank you," she said once they were outside.  "There was just something about him... and with all the killings that have been going on around here lately..."  She shook her head.  "I guess I'm just being silly."

He pulled her close to him.  "Not at all.  I'm glad you called.  Even the best-trained people need help from friends once in a while. Want me to drive you home just in case?"

She hesitated for a moment then answered, "Yeah, if you don't mind.  I'm just afraid he might follow."

"I don't mind at all.  I didn't like the looks of him either to tell you the truth."

She smiled as she leaned into him.

"I said she was mine!" Came a voice followed by a gunshot.

"JOHN!" Monica cried as he fell to the ground.

In an instant, the guy grabbed Monica and dragged her to his truck, leaving John lying on the ground.

"JOHN!" she cried out again as the truck took off.

******************

"John?"

"Monica?" he mumbled.

There was a pause followed by, "No, John, it's Dana."

Slowly he opened his eyes.  

"I've tried calling Monica but there's no answer.  Her... Her car was found at the bar where you were."

"Kidnapped," he whispered.

Scully shook her head.  "Who?"

"Monica."

Her eyes widened.  

Doggett took a deep breath.  "At the bar.  Some guy was hitting on her.  She called me to pick her up.  She didn't trust him.  I'm not sure what happened after we left, but I was shot and I heard her screaming."  A tear escaped from his eye.  

Scully took his hand in hers.  "It's not your fault.  I'll call Skinner and get a team started.  You work on getting better."

"How bad?"

"You were lucky.  He was a bad shot.  It just missed your spine and heart and didn't cause any significant damage.  You won't be playing football anytime soon though," she smiled.  

He sat up and pulled the sheets off him.

"Whoa, John, where do you think you're going?"

"Find Monica."

She was pushing him back down on the bed when Mulder walked in.  "Better do as she says," he told John with a grin.

Scully shot him a look that warned him not to joke then turned back to John.  "Don't worry about Monica, we'll find her, okay?  You just be sure to get better.  I'm sure she's worried about you."

The latest dose of morphine kicked in and John slowly nodded as he drifted off to sleep.

Scully took Mulder's hand and led him into the hallway.  "Monica was abducted," she told him before calling Skinner from the nurses station.

*****************

Monica awoke in a strange bed.  When she tried to sit up, she found her hands were tied to the backboard.  

"'Bout time you woke."

She glared at him without saying a word.

The guy walked over to her.  "Boyfriend's dead.  Read it in the paper."

Monica's heart shattered.  It was all her fault.  She shouldn't have called him.  If she had just taken care of things herself...

"Bad for him, good for me," the guy added, bringing Monica back to the moment.  He leaned down close.  

Monica gagged from the smell of alcohol on his breath.

"You might be the one I've been waiting for," he sneered before leaving.

"John," she cried.  "I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry.

****************

Cassie had just locked the door of the coffee cafe and was walking to her car when she heard a twig snap.  She wrapped her hand around her pepper spray but never had a chance to use it.

****************

"Victims name was Cassandra Twiner," the officer told Scully.  "They found her mace underneath her car."

"Any blood?"

The officer shook his head.  "We have no proof that the serial killer took her but it's around the same area as all the others."

Scully nodded.  If it was the same guy and he had taken a new victim did that mean..?  She shook her head.

"Scully?"

She turned to find Mulder standing behind her.  "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Skinner called."  He looked around.  "What's going on?"

"Another girl seems to be have taken by the killer."

Mulder's eyes met Scully's.  "Did they find Monica then?"

"No.  I'm only hoping that for some reason he kept her alive."

He took her arm and led her away from the crime scene.  "Dana, you know we have to tell John.  The killer has never taken one without leaving the last one's body around."

Slowly she nodded.  "I know.  I just don't know if I can tell him."

Mulder wanted to pull her close but held back knowing that it was not the place.

*****************

"We're doing everything we can, John," Scully said trying to assure him.

"I should be out there," he told her.

"There's nothing you could do at the moment even if you were.  You gave the police a good description." Mulder said, knowing exactly how John felt.  Too many times he had been in the same situation.  

John tightened his fist.  "I want to be the one to nail this guy."

Scully looked up at Mulder then her phone rang.  "Scully."  She paused then turned away from the men.  "Where?"  Another pause.  "We'll be right there."  Slowly she turned back around trying to fight the tears forming in her eyes.

But John saw them.  His own eyes widened.  "No.  It can't be."  He threw the covers off him and climbed off the bed.  Mulder immediately was there to steady him.

"I don't know yet, John.  They said it may be."

"I'm going with you."  He managed to make it to the chair to get his clothes then went into the bathroom to change.

Mulder held Scully.  

She wrapped her arms around his waist.  "What if it is her?"

He had no answer.  He only held her tighter.

****************

There were police all around when the trio pulled up to the crime scene.  Scully turned around to look at John who was in the backseat.  "Are you sure you want to do this?"

His crystal eyes locked into hers.  "I have to."

She nodded.  She had needed to be the one to see Mulder when he had been found dead, even though Doggett had tried to spare her that.  She had to see for herself.  Passing a glance at Mulder, she now felt even luckier that he had come back from the dead.

Mulder stopped the car and the three sat for a moment before John opened the car door.

Showing their ID's, they were taken to the body in the woods.  

"Initials carved on the abdomen, just like the others," the officer told them.  "Seems she, too, bled to death from the carvings before the body was dumped here."  

John cringed.  He knew the officer had no idea that they knew Monica so well but... He closed his eyes and swayed for a moment.  His body was so numb that he barely felt Scully's hands on him, steadying him.

"John?"

"I'm okay."

The officer continued to an overgrown section that was surrounded by a number of police. 

Again, John had to stop for a moment.  The last time he had seen that scene it had been when they had found the body of his son.  For a brief moment he saw Monica standing there turning to him just as she had with Luke.

The officers stepped aside and let them in.  Mulder stayed back, allowing John the privacy he needed and Scully to take care of him as was needed.

Holding his breath, John slowly looked down and froze.  He swallowed hard.  "That's not her," he whispered before turning around and walking away.

An officer looked to Scully.  

"No, that's not Monica Reyes."

He gave a nod.  "Sorry to have made him go through that."

"There was no identification?"

"Not that we've been able to find so far and she doesn't match anyone else reported missing aside from Ms. Reyes."

Scully looked back to see where John had gone to.  Mulder pointed to the car.  "I have to get him back to the hospital but will be back."

She walked over to Mulder.

"It wasn't her I take it?"

"No.  But it certainly looked a lot like her."  A tear escaped her eye.  "I don't know what else we can do."

He put a hand on her shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze.  "Let's take him back then get all the information we can on this and maybe see something everyone else has missed."

She looked up at him and smiled.  "What would I do without you?"

Mulder shrugged.  "Be spending more time with a shrink maybe?"

*****************

"I don't need to be kept here," John argued as they returned to the hospital.  "I can't stay locked up here anymore.  I need to be helping you on this."

"John, you were shot," Scully told him.   

"Then I'll hire a nurse or something.  I can't be there..."  He pointed to the hospital building.  "When Monica is out there somewhere."  He looked at Scully hard.  "You and Mulder of all people should understand."

Mulder looked to Scully.  He was right.

She sighed.  "Alright.  Let me talk to the doctor.  Maybe he'll agree to release you as long as you let me look after you.  He may be more willing to leave you in the care of another doctor."

"Thank you," he said, following her and Mulder inside.

******************

An agreement was made with the doctor to let John out.  The condition being that he stay with Scully either at her place or his.  Mulder took John to his house to get some things before returning to Scully's where he would be staying while Scully returned to the crime scene.

On the way to John's house, he and Mulder drove in silence.

"How do you do it?" John finally asked.

"What?"

John looked at Mulder.  "I've read some of the old reports.  How did you manage to get through all those times when Dana had been taken and given up for dead?"

Mulder concentrated on driving for a moment before answering, "I had to believe."

"Believe what?  That she would be found alive or that you did everything you could?"

"Both."

John nodded before staring out the passenger window again.  "I once believed Luke would be found unharmed."

Mulder's heart went out to the man sitting beside him.  Here they were, two fathers who had each lost a son.  The difference was John's was gone for good while Mulder and Scully's was still alive just with a different family.  "Hope may be the only thing you have right now, John, but sometimes it's the only thing you need."

*********************

"Please, let me go," cried Cassie.  Her hands had long ago become numb from where they were tied.  Her legs ached to touch ground.  She had been suspended from a large hook in the ceiling since her abduction.  Suddenly she heard someone cough.  "Hello?  Is someone there?"

"Who... who are you?"

"Cassie.  Who are you? Where are we?"

The voice was a little clearer this time.  "My name is Monica.  I don't know where we are."  She coughed again.  "Did you see anything when you were brought here?"

"No.  How long have you been here?"

There was no answer.

"Monica?"

"Three days I think.  I'm not sure."

"Great," Cassie mumbled.  "Who is this creep?"

Monica hesitated before answering.  "The... the serial killer."

"No!" Cassie cried.  "We have to get out of here."

"I've been trying but he's been keeping me pretty drugged up.  Where are you?"

"Hanging from the ceiling.  He tied my hands and hung them around a hook of some sort.  You?"

"Leather strapped to a bed."

"Has he... did he...?"

"No, sex isn't what he's after.  He's looking for something but I haven't figured out what yet."

"I hope someone called the police by now," Cassie said.

"They've been called, trust me.  I'm an FBI agent so you can bet the whole DC area is being covered."

"But what if we're not longer in the DC area?" Cassie asked.

Monica's heart sank.  She hadn't thought of that.  What if they were out of state?  There were enough surrounding states with dense forests where people could hide for years.  "They'll find us."

******************

John paced around Scully's living room as Mulder watched TV.  

"Would you please sit down?"  Mulder said.

"What's taking her so long?"

"If I know her she's getting all the information she can and then some."

John sighed and sat on a nearby chair.  He winced.

"You okay?"

He nodded.  "Just forgot sitting back was not a good thing."  Immediately he jumped up again when the door handle rattled. 

A second later, a haggard-looking Scully walked in.  She looked at the two men.  "Make yourselves at home," she teased.

"What did you find out?"  John asked.

"The body was that of Karissa Holsten.  She had not been reported missing until this morning because her parents and friends thought she was camping.  When she didn't return by this morning they got worried."  Scully set a file down with the others on her kitchen table and the three sat at the table.  "She was thirty-four. Single."  Before she continued, she poured herself a glass of wine.  She was going to need it.  "She was definitely killed by the same killer.  Same knife.  Same initials.  This makes the tenth known victim so far."

John slammed his hand on the table causing Mulder and Scully to both jump.  "And you're telling me that with all this information no one can figure out who it is?  We have his initials for heavens sake!"

He took the file and looked through it himself.  "There *has* to be something we're all missing."  He looked to Mulder.  "You've worked with this type of thing before."

Mulder nodded.  "I think..."  He paused, looking over the file he took from John.  "I think he's going for a total of thirteen victims."

Scully remained silent.

"Why?" John asked.

He shook his head.  "It's more of a feeling than anything.  Profiling serial killers can only go so far.  Each one has his own signature.  But given that Kassie was number ten..."

"That we know of," Scully added.

"That we know of," he agreed.  "And the fact that he is leaving his initials.  This all indicates he has some sort of plan worked out in his mind.  He wants to be caught on some level but he wants to be remembered for doing something much more organized than most serial killers who seem to randomly pick victims based on sex, age, looks or something.  He seems to want to be placed in the same category as the Zodiac Killer."

"How does Monica fit into all this?"

"I don't know, John.  We don't have much to go on in spite of what we have."

"I take it the initials have already been run?"

Scully nodded.  "Over one million matched the initials.  Of them, half of them were female so they excluded them.  Of them over one hundred thousand live in the DC area.  Of them, three hundred and forty are already in prison.  There was nothing suspicious about the remaining and it's too large of a number to investigate each one."

"How about leads based on my description of the guy?"

Scully shook her head.  "They've had a few calls but they were all dead ends."

John stood up and began to walk away.

"John."

He turned towards Scully.

"You're bleeding again.  I need to check it."

He nodded and she followed him to the bathroom.  He took off his shirt and sat on the closed toilet while she re-bandaged him.  "What if we don't find her?"

"I..."  She stopped.  She had nothing to say.

"What if we never find her?"

Scully bit her lower lip as she finished applying the last bandage.  She felt the sobs beneath her fingers.  Kneeling before him, she felt him grab hold of her before she could say anything.  They stayed like that as she let him cry.

Mulder was becoming worried.  They had been in the bathroom a long time.  What if John's injuries were worse than they thought?  As he approached the open door, he heard John crying and quietly went back to the living room.  John and Scully had been partners for a year.  Scully had told Mulder how John had been there for her in her search, even though she had kept herself distanced.  For that, Mulder would always be grateful.  Grateful that Scully had not had to go through those times alone.

Half an hour later, Scully returned to the living room and sat beside Mulder, resting against him.  

"How is he?"

She sighed.  "Not good.  He's sleeping now.  Injury wise, he's healing nicely."  She paused.  "He and Monica have been friends for so long.  I suspect she was the one who really helped him through Luke's death."  She choked on her words.  "And she's so much like Melissa in so many ways that I feel as if I may lose another sister."  This time it was her turn to cry and Mulder held her tightly as she did.

*********************

A door opening startled Monica awake.  The light in the room nearly blinded her.

"Time for some work," the killer announced.  

It was the first time Monica and Cassie were able to see each other.

He stood looking between them.  Tears streamed down Cassie's face as she begged him to let them go.

But he shook his head. "If I did that I wouldn't be able to complete my mission."

"What is your mission?" Monica groggily asked.

He knelt beside the bed and ran his hands through her hair.  

Cassie turned her head in disgust.

"You will know soon, my love."  Standing up, he headed for Cassie and pulled out a carving knife.  "It is now time for you to help me complete my mission."

"No, please!" she cried as he cut her down from the hook.

"Let her go," Monica pleaded.  "She's done nothing to you."

He turned back to Monica, keeping a tight grip around Cassie's neck.  "But we need her to complete this."

"What is *this*?" Monica demanded before being hit with a coughing fit.

"*This* is what will bond us together, forever, as it should have been ages ago."

"You're sick," Cassie managed to get out.

He took her over to a flat board and tied her down to it.  "With you, my work shall take on a new level."

Monica could not understand what he was saying, but she feared what he was about to do.  "Please," she begged.  "Let her go."

Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Cassie screamed as he began his incisions.

Monica turned her head.

The killer saw this and stopped.  He walked over to Monica and forced her to look at Cassie.  He tied a rope around her head so she was unable to look away.  "You must watch.  It's all for you."  He went back to Cassie but when he saw Monica had closed her eyes, he yelled, "If you do not watch I will make her death that much more slow and painful."

With tears, Monica opened her eyes.  

He cut his initials in her abdomen with skill and precision.  Her screams were far beyond anything Monica had ever heard.  She then knew Cassie had been right. They were far beyond the city limits of DC for no one to hear her screams.

When he had completed his carvings, he stood back and admired his work.  He walked over and knelt beside the bed again.

Monica was grateful to see that Cassie was at least mostly unconscious at that point as they young girl lay bleeding to death.  "Please, get her help."

Releasing the rope that had bound her head, he ran a blood-covered hand along her cheek and smiled.  "But she is getting help.  Our master will help her.  She will be remembered as the martyr she was.  I need only one more martyr then you will complete my mission."  With that, he left her alone with only the last groaning breaths of Cassie."

*****************

Scully was still soundly asleep against Mulder on the couch when the phone rang.  He quickly picked it up so it wouldn't disturb her or John.

"Mulder."

"It's Skinner.  Are they both there?"

His heart clenched.  "Yes, Sir."

"There's been another body found and another person missing."

Mulder remained silent, waiting for Skinner to fill in the pieces.

"The body found was that of Cassandra Twiner.  It was him.  The latest missing is another woman who resembles Monica."

Scully stirred and sat up.

"What can we do?"

"I'm going to fax over what I have.  Tell me you guys can figure this out before... Hopefully we're not too late.  I am hoping that he is keeping Monica alive for some reason..."

"Because otherwise she should have been killed before Cassie," Mulder finished.

Scully's eyes filled with tears.

"Yeah," Skinner said.  "The FBI, state police and local police are all working overtime on this."

"I know.  Any other calls about the description?"

"No."

"Alright.  I'll wait for the fax and thank you, Sir."

"Just get this guy."

Mulder hung up and looked to Scully, wiping away her tears for her.  "It's not Monica but they did find Cassandra Twiner."

"And you believe Monica should have been before Cassandra."

He nodded.

Just then John walked into the living room.  Upon seeing Scully's tears, he swallowed hard.

"They still haven't found her, John," Mulder told him.  "But they just found Cassandra Twiner's body."

Any hope of finding Monica alive was dwindling quickly.

Scully's fax machine rang and the reports started coming through.

*****************

Monica awoke to a sharp stab in her arm, which she knew to be the drugs to keep her relatively sedated.  She also saw him tying an unconscious girl to the same board he had used to kill Cassie.

When he saw she was awake, he practically bounded over to her with excitement.  "This is it.  She is the last martyr.  Once I mark her, we can then be bonded forever."

By this time, Monica was beyond trying to figure out what he was thinking.  Her brain was too fuzzy for that and she just wanted to get home.  To what, she did not know.  She wasn't really sure there was anything for her with John dead but then she'd think of her parents and refused to die on them.

She said nothing.

The young woman awoke and screamed in pain as the first cut was made.  Tears filled Monica's eyes.  She was to be next.

****************

John stood up.  "I know where they are!"

Scully and Mulder stared at him.

"How?" she finally asked.

"When I got to the bar there were only three other vehicles there.  One was Monica's, the other was a car with a DC plate, but the third was a truck with a West Virginia plate."

"John, you don't know that he even parked in the lot let alone which one was his."

He sat down.

"Besides," Mulder added.  "West Virginia is a large, well-wooded state."

John groaned.  "Just something, anything."

Scully's phone rang.

"Scully."  She listened to the caller while Mulder and John continued to read through stuff.  "Are you sure?  Get a chopper ready!"

She hung up and turned to the men.  "They think they know where she is.  His latest victim was still alive when they found her.  She told them of another woman being held there and she remembered where he took her."

"Can we talk to her?" John asked.

"No, she died a short time later.  But the local police in Virginia told the FBI of a cabin way out in the woods used by hunters mostly but it's off-season.  It's about a three hour drive out of DC."  She opened her door.  "Come on, a chopper is waiting to take us there."

*********************

The killer lifted Monica's shirt just above her stomach.

She closed her eyes knowing what was going to happen next.  At least she would be seeing John again.

"You and I will last forever now," he whispered into her ear.  "Just as it should have been in 1356."

*******************

John, Scully and Mulder joined the local police who had surrounded the cabin.

"We called out to him but no one has answered.  There's been no movement from inside but outside it looks as though someone has been here recently."

"Why didn't you go in?" John demanded.

The officer stared at him.  "We were told to wait for the FBI."

Suddenly a blood-curdling scream filled the air.

Without a second thought, John grabbed a gun and ran for the door.

********************

Monica bit her lower lip until it bled to keep from screaming out.  To keep from giving the killer that satisfaction but as he started the second initial she could no longer hold it in.

The pain shot through her like a blade in her veins.  She had wondered why the other girls had not passed out from the initial pain and now she knew.  The pain was too great.  She felt the warmth of her own blood on her abdomen.

"Soon, my dear," the killer repeated.

Somewhere in her cries, she heard a gunshot and hoped he had found mercy and just shot her.  Then she felt a weight on her that was soon lifted.

"Monica?  Monica."

She struggled to open her eyes to the familiar voice.  John stood staring back at her.  "John."

"Yeah, hang on," he told her then looked at her wounds.  "Oh geez."  He turned to the door.  "She's hurt bad!" he yelled before removing his jacket and pressing it over her bleeding wounds.  "You're going to be alright, Monica."

"I know, I'm with you now."

He merely smiled at her, unsure what she was talking about.

******************

John paced the floor of the hospital's waiting room.

"He does that a lot," Mulder whispered to Scully.

"And you'd do the same thing if it were me in there," she reprimanded.

"You know I would," he told her.

Scully looked to John.  "John, sit down.  You're still healing too you know."

"Doesn't matter."  He paused at the doorway.  "I'll be back."

Neither had to ask, both knew where he was going.

*****************

John stood before the large cross.  "I know you can hear us.  I know you heard Monica when she was praying for my life.  I..."  He choked on his tears before falling to his knees.  "I need her here.  I know you can use her there but please, I need her here.  It may be selfish of me but I'd... I..."  He buried his face in his hands and cried until he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.  He looked up and saw Scully.

"She's out of surgery," she told him.

Slowly he stood up, wiping away his tears.

"The doctor said you can see her for a few moments but she is still under anesthesia."  She hugged him.  "She's going to be alright, John."

John nodded and silently followed her to Monica's room.

Scully closed the door as she left.  Immediately she fell into Mulder's arms.

***************

He stood beside the bed and held her hand.  She looked peaceful.  Probably for the first time in eight days.  "Monica, I'm here."

****************

The next morning a nurse came into the waiting room and woke the trio.  "She's awake," she told them with a smile.

John jumped up from the couch and nearly ran to her room.

She smiled and cried at the same time upon seeing him enter her room.

In an instant he was at her side wiping her tears away.  "You're alright."

Reaching up, she touched his face.  "And so are you."

He nodded.  

"He... he told me you were dead.  That he read it in the paper."  She could no longer hold back the tears and wrapped her arms around his neck as he sat on the bed.

They cried together for a long time.

Scully peered through the window but decided it best to leave them alone.  She and Mulder would return later.

When they did return, Mulder quietly opened the door then looked back at Scully smiling.  "I think we'd better come back even later."  

Poking her head in, she, too, smiled.  John had joined Monica on the bed and both were fast asleep in each other's arms.  Not even the nurse administering the IV had awoken them.

Scully closed the door, put her arms around Mulder's neck, bringing his mouth down to hers.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"For coming back to me."

They left the hospital hand in hand.

Meanwhile, the nurse retrieved an extra blanket and quietly placed it over John.  With a large smile, she informed the other nurses not to disturb them unless it was absolutely necessary.

The End


End file.
